


Everything Is Different Now

by frankcastlesfemfeb (Deathtouch)



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Young Avengers
Genre: Alien Culture, Alien Planet, Cute, Diners, F/F, First Dates, Fun, Nervousness, Retro Futurism, The multiverse, dinner date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-12
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2018-05-01 07:58:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5198249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathtouch/pseuds/frankcastlesfemfeb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Femfeb 2014 | Fanfic<br/><i>heykortney asked:</i> america/kate first date?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything Is Different Now

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd! all mistakes are my own.

“Everything’s different.” 

Kate felt like crying. She sat down at the foot of her bed and put her face in her hands. She took big shaky breaths until Teddy came to wrap his arm around her shoulders.

“Hey, hey. Kate. It’s okay.” He said, and if it was anyone else saying that Kate would have screamed, but it was Teddy. He sounded so genuine, and so sweet, and she melted against him. 

“If I screw this up I’ll never see her again. She won’t want to be a Young Avenger anymore. I don’t want to be the only girl on the team Teddy, it sucks.” Kate sounded a little frantic. Her voice was at that spot that could have easily broken into a sob, and she was trying desperately to keep it from breaking. 

There were bigger fears in the works than just being the only female on the team, though. Kate wasn’t sure if she could handle the rejection. It would eat at her if things didn’t go well tonight. First stupid Noh-Varr left her for a nightmare creature, with the nerve to say that that ugly alien was his damn dream girl. Kate hid it well, but that hurt. It really hurt. She wasn’t sure if she could take a let down from America too so soon after that.

She could finally admit to it; she had such a big, stupid crush. She wanted this to go well. She wanted it to be perfect. America liking her really mattered. Except right now none of her clothes fit right, and her hair wasn’t perfect, and her nervousness and fear read so obviously on her face. Kate was ruining everything before it even started.

“It’s going to go well.” Teddy promised her. He was such a sweetheart. This was the reason Kate had invited him over to help her get ready. He was good with stuff like this. He was so optimistic, and sympathetic, and that was what Kate needed right now. “C’mon, you’ve been on this team with her for months. You got along with her better than any of us. It’s not going to be any different now.”

“Everything’s different now.” Kate said again, and the words were like ash in her mouth. “Before we were just teammates. This is… this is bigger. It’s more important. It’s scary.”

Teddy gave Kate’s shoulders a squeeze. “Kate. I’ve been a Young Avenger with you long enough to know that when things get big, and important, and especially when they get scary that’s when you rise to the occasion.” 

Kate peeked up at him. This wasn’t the same, but she understood where he was coming from. 

“C’mon. She’s going to be here any minute. If you need to cry to get the tears out, just do it. If not, we’ve gotta get you ready.”

“Thank you, Teddy.” Kate swallowed. She wiped her eyes and gave herself a second to catch her breath before going back to the pile of clothes on the floor. She had to find an outfit that worked.

America arrived right on time, but Kate wasn’t ready. She sent Teddy down to open the door, and even though it was a stupid cliché, she got to make a grand entrance coming down the main staircase while America waited for her at the bottom.

Kate had picked one of many purple jumpsuits. This one a little more 60s mod than her Young Avengers costume. It came with a matching motorcycle jacket, one that snapped at the neck. To hide the fact that her hair wasn’t doing quite what she wanted it too Kate was wearing a pair of purple aviators like a hairband.

“’Bout time, Princess.” America said, but she was smirking, and she didn’t seem annoyed at all.

Kate’s brow furrowed. “I hardly kept you waiting!” She said in reply.

For some reason, that just made America smirk more.

Teddy gave both Kate and America hugs before he left, and being well and truly alone with America made Kate feel nervous. It was so different from all the times they’d been alone before. Being alone with America before had never meant anything. Now it did.

“So, uh, where are we going?” Kate asked, locking the door as they left. They waved to teddy across the street but ended up walking in the opposite direction.

“Off-world okay?” America asked, but it wasn’t really a question. That was her plan. Kate didn’t want to get in the way of whatever she had in mind, so she just nodded.

That was how America ended up with her wrists and eyes glowing. She conjured a bright blue star and kicked through it like shattering a glass window. There was darkness on the other side, but Kate had done this enough times by now to know that it didn’t necessarily mean it would be dark wherever they ended up.

Once she crossed over Kate found herself on…a bridge. A Technicolor bridge that raced with traveling lights under America’s high top sneakers. They had passed through a few alternate universe Asgards with the Young Avengers in the past, and Kate recognized this as the Rainbow Bridge. Except. This wasn’t Asgard. The bridge was sticking out into the wide expanse of the galaxy, and at the end of the path there was a diner. A tiny little diner; it was retro, red, and looked like scenery from the Jetsons come to life.

“Woah.” Kate grinned. 

“Dinner first.” America said, leading the way towards the restaurant. 

“…What’s second?” Kate asked, jogging a few steps to catch up to her. She caught America smirking, but didn’t get an answer.

There was a tiny little bell on the door as they walked in. America lead Kate to a red vinyl booth; the kind of red that was all glittery. The edge of their table was a grooved silver metal, and the table-top itself had rounded triangles overlapping each other in multicolors. The table had ketchup, mustard, and an odd purple squirt bottle lined up at the end near the wall next to a tiny little jukebox catalog. It was metallic, with neon colors accenting the dials. 

The roof of the diner was all glass. Or, at least, it was see-through. The cosmos stretched on endlessly above their heads. Kate could just barely pick up little ships, or shooting stars, coming and going one direction or the other. She knew her mouth was hanging open as she admired the view, but she just couldn’t help herself.

“This place is awesome.” She murmured, though mostly to herself. 

There were other patrons, but not many. The diner was nearly empty. There was a Groot-like creature drinking coffee(?) at one of the barstools by the counter, and another vaguely human couple occupying a booth across the way. One of them had blue skin, but other than that they were vaguely human.

“I knew you’d like it.” America said. She had the menu open in her hands, glancing over it, but her eyebrow was cocked up in a way that read as perfectly pleased, and self-satisfied. 

“It was a good guess.” Kate replied, not letting her win this one.

America looked up from the menu. “Uh-huh. Like you didn’t like that floating diner we found out in Kree-space.” 

Kate opened her mouth, about to argue. Billy and Teddy had liked that place too! None of them had ever seen anything like it before, that’s what made it special. Except, it suddenly occurred to her that things were different now. They were different. Kate would ruin the date if she kept mouthing off. She already said something stupid and snappy on that staircase back on earth, she needed to keep it together. “Okay. I guess you’re right.” She agreed.

Kate was slowly realizing she didn’t recognize anything on the menu. She was too focused on trying to pick out some kind of food she was familiar with, that she missed the slight frown that took over America’s face for half a second.

Their waiter was a large tentacled squid who walked upright. Or, well, slithered across the checkered tile floor in an upright manor. It had a cute little apron around it’s waist and it took notes with a pen and a pad. America solved the problem about the unfamiliar food on the menu by ordering for her.

Kate slid down to the end of the booth to page through the catalog. There was one song by The Doors, and two songs by the Dazzler, but the rest of it she didn’t recognize. 

“Try Osiris.” America told her. “The cowboy song.”

Kate went back through the alphabet to find ‘Osiris’ and picked the song America told her to play. It wasn’t too loud, which was nice, they would still be able to talk over it if they wanted to. The song was actually really catchy too. A low toned female rapper over a hypnotic synth beat. America tapped her fingers on the table as it played.

“Come here a lot?” Kate asked, since she seemed to know the songs on the jukebox.

America just shrugged. “The foods good.”

“Yeah, couldn’t be the view or anything.” Kate said back, grinning. She tipped her head up to look at the stars above their heads again.

America pointed out which way earth was, but she said it was too far away that even if they had a telescope they wouldn’t be able to see it. Kate kind of liked that though. They were at The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and it felt so freeing to be so far away from her home and her troubles.

The date had barely even started, but already it felt so good to be here. With America. “Thank you for bringing me here.” Kate said, all heartfelt and earnest. 

“You’re cute when you get all mushy like that.” America told her in reply.

Kate’s ears might have turned red with a blush. 

She was saved from having to speak when the waiter arrived carrying plates of food with his or her tentacles. Kate received a plate full of… colored sticks. Like French fries, if French fries came in blue and green and red and orange and purple and all the other colors in between.

America had some sort of bowl of stew that bubbled over with dry-ice like steam. It smelled delicious.

“What are these?” Kate asked with uncertainly, lifting a red stick from the plate.

“Try'em.” America told her, shrugging.

Kate was only half sure America wouldn’t lead her astray, but if nothing else, she was adventurous enough to give anything a try once. She took a decent sized bite of the red thing she had in her hand, and instantly the flavor exploded in her mouth. Like smoke from a charcoal grill, and hot sauce without the heat. It was amazing. 

The purple ones tasted like sea-salt and lavender. The green were earthy like asparagus and brussel sprouts and sugar snap peas. 

Kate had never been so amazed by food before. Each bite was different, and impressive, and amazing. She didn’t even speak, didn’t even glance up at the stars, didn’t even hear the music playing over the speakers. All she could do was taste. “This is… oh my god, America.”

America seemed satisfied. “Knew you’d like that.”

This time Kate didn’t argue with her. She couldn’t. She just wanted to keep eating.

Kate did eventually clear her plate. America let her have a few bites of her stew too, which tasted kind of like beef and potato, but it had a tangy cream cheese element that shouldn’t have tasted good, but it did.

They shared dessert, a milkshake that came in a tall glass with three cherries and straws with red and white stripes. Kate and America both tried to tie knots in cherry stems with just their tongues, which wasn’t even sexual, more just an exciting game to see who could get it done first. America finished first, but Kate’s knot was neater. Their milkshake tasted like cinnamon, and pumpkin spice, and cloves. 

Even though they were finished eating Kate didn’t want to leave. She wanted to lean back in the booth and look up at the stars forever. Surprisingly, America let her sit back for a long time. Kate didn’t know what she was looking at, because she wasn’t leaning back and admiring the view. It never occurred to her that America only had eyes for Kate. No, no. Kate was too busy being amazed by the wonders of the universe. 

They did eventually leave the diner, though. They went outside to the parking lot where America conjured another star and jumped on it, planting her feet square in the middle. It shattered underneath the soles of her sneakers and she went plummeting through. Kate took the plunge after her. 

Kate’s feet touched down on a rocky surface on the other side. Just as she was getting her bearings, a great big splash of foamy white ocean spray crashed around them, misting them with water. It was the big surprise to punctuate their landing. They were on the edge of a cliff, jutting out from the shore. Kate was so surprised by the wave crashing against the cliff like that, she immediately jumped into defensive position.

“Relax, chica.” America teased her. “What are you going to do, fight the ocean?” She asked.

Kate’s ears turned red, and this time she really did blush. “You could have warned me!” 

“And ruin the surprise?” 

“Surprise! America we could have landed ten feet that way and fallen into the sea!” Kate admonished.

“Ah, then we would have had to take our wet clothes off and huddle together to stay warm.” America said, teasing Kate again. “I don’t see what’s so bad about that.”

Kate opened her mouth to argue, but another big wave came rushing up to meet the edge of the cliff, and the soft spray came spritzing over them again. This place was beautiful. The sun was setting in the distance, and the water was sparkling clear blue. The cliff they were on was amazing pink, and white granite. 

“I’m sorry.” She muttered. “This… this place…” It was vastly different from the diner. The diner was vintage and futuristic all at once. Kate had never been to a place like it before. It was a slice of alien space. This, though? This was nature at its finest. The contrast between locations were stark, but neither was better than the other, and now that the shock of their new destination had died down Kate could see just how perfect a place they were in. 

“I shouldn’t have snapped.” Kate added quickly, feeling like an idiot. Of course America knew better than to open a portal straight down into choppy ocean waters.

“Hey.” America reached for her arm and pulled her in close. “I like when you get feisty.” She said, and she planted a kiss on Kate’s lips before Kate could edge in any words at all.

A wave crashed against the cliff and dusted them with foam. It was perfect. Kate had never had someone kiss her like that before.

When America pulled away, she was smirking a little. “I like it when you say what’s on your mind, so don’t stop now, okay?”

Kate was a little too dumbfounded to speak, so she just nodded. 

America took her by the hand and lead her back towards the land mass that the cliff was jutting out from. Just far enough back to stay out of most of the spray they found a dry patch of land and sat down. It was rocky, and grassy, and dirty, but neither of them minded. They sat shoulder to shoulder and watched the waves churn out on the ocean.

“What is this place?” Kate asked, after admiring the view for a while.

America mulled it over, and then shrugged. “I used to come here when I was younger. It was just me on my own out there in the multiverse. I used to eat at that diner all the time, too. They fed me even when I didn’t have money. And this place… ah. I don’t know. There’s nobody here to bother me. I like the waves.”

Kate listened, kind of in awe, because that was the most America had ever said about herself in one go. 

Everything was different now.

Not like before, when Kate said everything was different. She didn’t know what she was talking about then. She was scared, and nervous, and thought that she had to be perfect company to win the girl. She was wrong about that, of course. America liked her for her, and that was all she wanted.

Everything was different now, because Kate knew something no one else knew. She knew about this place. She knew about the rocky cliffs, and the water. She knew about that diner too. She knew about these little pieces of America that no one else had. 

Everything was different now, and that was okay.

Everything was different now in the best way.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!   
> feel free to comment here or chat me up on tumblr http://frankcastles.tumblr.com/ask  
> if you have any marvel femslash suggestions, please keep me in mind next february! :)


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